


I Disappear Into Infinity

by sarahandthegraveyardshift



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-18 00:02:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11279553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahandthegraveyardshift/pseuds/sarahandthegraveyardshift
Summary: Barry smiles, and his teeth are stained red-red-red.





	1. Barry

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys! Wow, look at you! You just look darn amazing today, do you know that? I'm so happy you're here. 
> 
> So this is my first delve into this particular fandom, so don't hate me..
> 
> And enjoy!

**I. Hold On.**

Barry smiles, and his teeth are stained _red-red-red_. 

“S'okay,” he slurs, trying a laugh but not managing much more than a gurgle. “S-S'okay, I heal fast, Ollie.”

“I know,” Oliver growls, pressing as hard as he can on the gushing wound in Barry's abdomen. “I know you do, Barr. Just...try not to talk, okay?”

Barry nods, grimacing as he swallows a mouthful of blood. “Is everyone..? Did he..?” he tries to ask, defying Oliver's request.

“They're fine. You did it; you stopped him.” Oliver glances around at the growing crowd of onlookers, some of them taking their phones out. “Felicity,” he hisses, ducking his head so that the hood hides his face. 

“Already on it,” a chipper but determined voice says through his earpiece. “All electronics within a hundred feet are powering off as we speak.”

Barry sucks in a tight breath and shudders under the vigilante's hands. 

“Get us out of here,” Oliver demands as police sirens sound from down the street. 

“Cisco and Digg are almost there,” Felicity promises. “Just hold on.”

“Hold on,” Oliver repeats under his breath. “Barry, hold on.”

Barry smiles, and his teeth are stained red—there's just so much _red-red-red_. “S'okay,” he slurs, his eyes dimming as his breath hitches. “S'okay, Ollie. I...I heal...” 

 

**II. Promises.**

Barry wakes, and the room is _white-white-white_. The air is sharp and sterile, but it's not copper or pain, and he sighs in relief. 

“Barry?” someone asks, fingers threading through his hair. He turns his head, feeling sluggish. Fastest man alive, but everything is so slow. 

“Ollie,” he rasps, smiling at the hope and relief he sees on the other man's face. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Oliver repeats, one corner of his mouth quirking. Barry knows that look—the face he makes to hide fear. 

The speedster raises his free hand—the one not clutched in Oliver's own—and strokes the side of his boyfriend's face. “Are you okay?”

Oliver huffs. “I think that's my line.”

Barry nods and searches the other man's face. “What happened?”

Oliver shifts uncomfortably. “What do you remember?”

Barry looks over the man's shoulder, thinking before saying, “There was...another speedster.”

“He stabbed you,” Oliver says with a nod. “Punctured your liver. You were bleeding _so fast_ , Barry.” His voice cracks, and he squeezes the younger man's hand. “You weren't healing fast enough to keep up. You almost...You could have...”

Barry pulls the man forward, kissing him desperately. “I'm okay,” he says, voice hushed and harsh. “I'm okay. I'm here.”

Oliver nods and breathes, sitting back as he tries to find his composure—something he seems to have less of when the speedster is involved. “I know. But...don't do that again.”

Barry chuckles and closes his eyes as exhaustion seeps into his bones. “No promises,” he murmurs as the world falls away. 

Barry sleeps, and his dreams are _dark-dark-dark_.

 

**III. Okay.**

Barry runs, and he isn't _fast-fast-fast_ enough. He tries—Lord he tries—but he can't reach the speed he needs.

He flies off the back of the treadmill and into the awaiting boxes Cisco had insisted were for _padding_. 

“I'm okay,” he groans, slumping into the cardboard like it will swallow him whole. He wishes it would. He wishes that cardboard boxes were his only foe at the moment. Barry Allen is faster than a cardboard box.

Fingers wrap around his upper arm and pull him out of the mess. “You don't look okay,” Oliver says with disapproval.

“I am,” Barry insists, rubbing a sore spot on the back of his neck. “I'm just tired.”

“You didn't sleep last night.” Oliver crosses his arms and centers a sharp look on him. 

“...No. I didn't.”

“You're pushing yourself too hard,” the vigilante says harshly, but his eyes are full of concern and panic. “If you keep this up, you won't be good to anyone.”

“If I don't keep this up, I'll never get fast enough to stop this guy.”

“You don't need to be _faster_ , Barry. You need to be _smarter_. Listen to your instincts. They'll help you defeat him.”

Barry puts his hands on his hips and closes his eyes, lowering his head. He's so tired. 

“Come on,” Oliver says, and Barry opens his eyes to see the man holding his hand out. “You need sleep. Let's go home.”

Barry's shoulders slump. He takes the hand, and it's _warm-warm-warm_. “Okay,” he sighs, smiling tightly and letting Oliver lead him from the room. 

Barry doesn't run, and that's never made him feel so helpless. 

 

**IV. Lies.**

Barry cries, and someone holds him _tight-tight-tight_. “He took Ollie,” he sobs into Joe's shoulder. “I can't do this. I can't...”

He's tried holding it in, keeping it together. Oliver would _keep it together_ , dammit. But it's hard. It's hard when the only reason he's been able to get this far is just...gone. 

Ollie is _gone_. 

“We'll find him, Barr,” Joe promises. “Oliver's fine. We'll get him back.”

Barry's fingers tighten in the fabric of his father's shirt, and he chokes as he cries harder. Because it all sounds like _lies-lies-lies_. 

Barry cries, and his world crumbles. 

 

**V. Fight.**

Barry fights, and his thoughts are on _fire-fire-fire_. All he can see is the blood on Oliver's face, the bruises on his arms and neck. 

He screams as his vision tunnels, anger shivering in every cell of his being. It's like watching someone else lose control of who they are; except it's him. He's the one out of control. He's the one relentlessly smashing his fists into the speedster's face. 

Even when there isn't a face anymore, when it's just a mess of blood and flesh, he pounds it into the floor, not hearing Ollie's voice until the anger slowly starts to fade. 

That's when he notices the _pain-pain-pain_. 

Barry fights until he can't anymore. He just can't anymore...

 

**VI. The End.**

Barry breathes, and everything _hurts-hurts-hurts_. But that's okay because Ollie is alive and safe. That's all that matters.

“No!”

The earth will still turn. The sun will still rise. 

“Barry, stay with me! Please stay with me!”

Oliver will be sad. Barry is already sad thinking about it. But he knows Oliver will go on and make the world so much _better-better-better_. 

“Don't you dare go anywhere, Barry Allen! Listen to me!”

And he's happy knowing that Ollie will be his final thought. 

“Barry. Barry, I love you. Please, please don't do this!”

Barry breathes. 

“Breathe, Barry! Breathe!”

And then he doesn't.

“Barry!”

 

**I. The Beginning.**

Barry smiles, and it's _bright-bright-bright_.

“Yeah,” he says with an enthusiastic nod. “Yeah, I'd love to. Get dinner. With you.” He laughs and rubs the back of his head self-consciously. He's always been a little tongue-tied around Oliver Queen. The man is gorgeous, after all. 

The tight, uncertain look on Oliver's face fades into relieved approval. “Okay,” he says, clearing his throat. “I'll meet you tonight. Six o'clock.”

“Six o'clock,” Barry confirms, bumping into the door frame on his way out. 

“Don't be late,” Oliver calls after him. 

“Me? Late?”

Barry smiles, and the world is made of _light-light-light_.


	2. Oliver

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver dreams, and Barry is screaming-screaming-screaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes! Here I am again! Because I just couldn't do it, I just couldn't leave it the way I did at the end of the first chapter...
> 
> I am weak. And just as much a sucker for sad endings as I am for happy ones. 
> 
> So enjoy this, you beautiful thing you! I mean, just look at you. All gorgeous and stuff. Like, damn, Daniel.
> 
> ;)

**I. Force.**

Oliver dreams, and Barry is _screaming-screaming-screaming_. 

Trapped in a strange whirl of smoke and lightning and stars. It's beautiful and frightening, and Barry is crying so hard. Begging him to leave. 

“Ollie, you can't be here.”

Oliver reaches for him, but his fingertips barely graze the younger man's shoulder. “Barry, grab my hand! Come home!”

Barry drops to his knees and curls forward in pain. “Ollie!”

Oliver rages against the force keeping them apart, anger bubbling in his throat. The world around him swirls into darkness, Barry fading with it. 

“No!” 

Oliver wakes, and the tears on his face _burn-burn-burn_.

 

**II. Alive.**

Oliver sighs, and his shoulders feel _heavy-heavy-heavy_.

For three weeks, he's slept alone in a bed once shared, nightmares of Barry's death haunting him.

He is tired. 

He is angry.

He is trying so hard to make them understand. Make them see.

“It wasn't just a dream,” he argues, ignoring the sympathetic looks on the faces of his friends. “I know what a nightmare feels like. Trust me, this wasn't just a dream.”

“Oliver...”

He grinds his teeth. “Cisco,” he says sharply, holding his hand out. All he has to do is see— _vibe_ —and they'll know. 

Cisco does, if only to prove him wrong so they can move on from this awful subject. 

But now they can't. 

Because Cisco gasps, and his eyes fade into glass, and he mumbles and murmurs until he releases Oliver's hand like it's a hot coal.

“Barry...” Cisco says, out of breath as he looks at everyone's expectant faces. “He's alive. He's in the Speed Force.”

Oliver swallows, and his stomach _turns-turns-turns_. 

 

**III. Pacing.**

Oliver paces, and his boots _thud-thud-thud_ along the floor. 

“How much longer?” he demands, and Cisco rolls his eyes. 

“Dude, you asked that like two minutes ago.”

“And you still haven't answered me,” the vigilante growls. 

“I'm _trying_ , Oliver.”

“And Barry is disappearing!” Oliver yells, shoving something that looks expensive off a desk. “Stop _trying_ , Cisco, and just fucking _do it_!” 

“That's enough!” Felicity shouts, outrage dusting her words. “Oliver, we _all_ want him back. Now let Cisco do his job so we can bring him home.”

Oliver nods, and the _thud-thud-thud_ of his boots resumes. 

 

**IV. Come Home.**

Oliver gasps, and S.T.A.R. Labs and their friends are _gone-gone-gone_. The smoke and the lightning are back. 

And so is Barry. 

His eyes are wet and pained. He looks so sad to see Oliver again. “You shouldn't be here,” he shouts across the veil, and Oliver stretches, reaches, _begs_. 

“Neither should you,” he beckons. “Come home, Barry. Come home to me.”

Barry stares at the offered hand, and tears collect below his chin. “What if I don't deserve to?”

Oliver's heart aches. His arm is tired, his fingers prickling. “You do,” he promises, his breath hitching as his vision blurs. “Barry, you do. Please. Please take my hand.”

Barry looks back in anguish as the storm around them rages on.

Oliver prays and prays and _prays-prays-prays_...

 

**V. Love.**

Oliver breathes, and the scent is _Barry-Barry-Barry_. He buries his nose into the younger man's unruly hair and inhales deeply. 

Barry groans, shifting in Oliver's hold. “I'm late for work.”

Oliver huffs against the back of the speedster's neck. “You were dead two days ago. I think you deserve some time off.”

Barry stretches and twists so that he is facing Oliver in their warm, comfortable bed. “Tell that to Captain Singh.” 

Oliver raises an eyebrow and smirks. “Don't tempt me.”

Barry kisses the tip of Oliver's nose and rolls out of bed, yawning on his way to the bathroom. He catches the other man's eye and winks because they both know he could use his speed to rush through his morning routine, but these are the moments he loves to drag out for as long as possible. 

Oliver smiles, and he is in _love-love-love_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it. That's the end. I can't believe I fell in love with this pairing so gosh darn much..
> 
> Anyway, I hope you have the most amazing day!! You deserve it!! :D See you soon, friend!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm the WORST. It's possible I might do some follow-up with this one..If I ever find the time. :/ I am horrible with updates, I will just forewarn you. But it seems a shame just to leave it like that, especially with so much Barry/Oliver left to be expanded on..Stay tuned, friends! :D
> 
> EDIT: Okay, so there is definitely going to be another chapter. I was at work and suddenly got hit with a plot bunny, and I knew I just couldn't leave it like this!! So I've switched it from a Character Death to a Temporary Character Death. Oh boy! Can't wait to see how this turns out! :D


End file.
